The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-09
-. VI 7-----7-7@---1a
HE STAR OF BETHLEHEM.
Prof. Proctor's Opinion of the Reap
pearance of Cassiopeia's Visitor of
1870
From the Neo York World.


From the Mem York World
Many readers may, think, be interested
to learn precisely what astronomers really
know and think respecting that famous star
which blazed out in Cassiopeia in the year
1872, and whose return to temporary bril-
liancy is expected by many non-astronomi-
cal persons and by a few astronomers at
about this present time. / do not propose to
discuss the imagined connection between
this star and the Star of Bethlehem, an idea
which could only suggest itself to persons
ignorant of the astronomy of to-day and
also of the astrological notions of past ages
All that astronomers know with certainty
about the star called Tycho Brahe's is that
it shone forth with great splendor on the
night of Nov. II, 1872, in a spot CLOSE by
the star Kappa of Cassiopeia) indicated
with considerable precision by the Danish
astronomer, and that it continued visible,
though with gradually diminishing lustre,
until March, 1874, after having shone for
nearly seventeen months. We may be
tolerably certain that it shone out suddenly
on the night of Nov. II, because Tycho
Brahe was in the constant habit of studying
the aspect Of the heavens, with which he
was perfectly familiar and such a star as
the so-called new one, shining in a region Of
the heavens where there are no stars of the
first or even of the full second magnitude,
could not have escaped his attention for mo-
ment had it been shining on Nov. 10
as he saw it on Nov. H. How far
back we must set the real time Of the out
blaze we cannot tell. Surprising the star
about as far away as the first magnitude
stars-taking their average distance-may
be supposed to lie, we may assume that the
light of the star in its suddenly perturbed
condition had taken not fewer than twenty
years to reach our earth. But as a matter
of fact, we do not know enough about the
distances OF even the nearer stars to be able
to speak with any confidence on this point;
only we may be tolerably certain that the
average distance Of the hundred nearest
stars, or suns, is more than million times
the distance of our own sun, and, as light
takes nearly nine minutes in reach
ing us from him, it must take
fifteen or twenty years on the
average, for light to reach us from one
even Of those nearest stars. Most probably,
however, the star which so amazed Brahe
had been affected by the tremendous change
which caused it's sudden accession Of lustre
more taan century before his time In
passing, one may note how strangely this
thought bears on the fancful notion that the
star seen by the ''Wise Men of the East" was
that remote orb, set in confagration hun
dred years or so before the time of the Ma
tivity, in order that, after travelling several
hundreds of millions of millions of miles, it
might attract the attention of the magi and
guide them on their two hours walk from
Jerusalem to Bethlehem.
We have very little to connect the star of
Tycho Brahe with those said to have APP
peared in the years 045 and 1888, on the
strength OF which supposed connection the
star has been supposed to shine with abnor-
NAL brightness at intervals averaging about
3l2 years. Cyprianus Leovynus, a Bohe-
milan astronomer contemporary with Tycho
Brahe, asserts that in manuscript cbron-
icle he found records of the appearance of q
star in 945 between the consultations Ceph-
Gus and Cassicpeia, and of another star
which appeared IN the same region in 1864.
Since the position of Tycho Brahe's star
might, in those old, inexact days, have been
fairly enough described as between Cepheus
and CaSsopeia, though really well
within the latter constellation lit is shown
close by the lower rail of the Seated Lady's
chair back, at page l06 of my EASY Star
Lessons'0, Leovitius suggested that the stars
Of 945 and 1854 were merely apparitions of
the star afterward seen by Tycho Brahe.
The astronomers of that time Immediately
pounced on the opportunity OF deriding Leo
vitius for installing as an account of q star
what really related to a comet, pointing out
that in 1864 one of the most remarkable
comets ever seen made its appearance But
Tycho Brahe, anxious apparently to estab-
lish the respectable antiquity Of his star, de-
Tended Leovitius against the attacks Of Pom
tanus and Camerarius, who had been leaders
among those questioning the validity
of the statements made by Leovitius.
Still il remains the fact that
all the evidence astronomers have
on which to base a belief that Tycho
Brahe's star is a periodical variable Is the
doubtful assertion Of little known astrono-
mer respecting two very questionable state
ments, in an otherwise unknown manuscript,
about two stars which probably were not
stars, but comets, appearing in a pa bf the
sky which might possibly have been, but
most probably was not, the place where
Tycho Brahe's star appeared, the intervals
between the three apparitiens If we dar-
ingly assume the same orb was seem being
$40 years and 30S years, periods not pre-
cisely or even approximately equal
With no other evidence available il re-
quires more courage than any astronomer
living probably possesses to assert--as some
who know nothing Of astronomy have as
serted-that Tycho Brahe's star appears at
intervals of 3l5 years, and will be next seen
in August of this present year.
RICHARD A. PROCTOR.